Thursday 29 October 2009

Scientists reveal that most babies born in Britain today will live past the age of 100!!

I'm startled to think that my two grand-daughters, born in March 2008, are likely to be living well into the first decade of the 22nd century! How will work have changed to cope with this increasing age profile? Here's an opportunity for you to explore the topic of age in your 'Futures' module in Year 13. Click here
Writing in the 'Sunday Observor' 27/9/2009, Robin McKee and Anuskha Asthana, reported that the Academy of Medical Sciences into old age revealed that 'healthy life expectancy is increasing at least as quickly as life expectancy!
The study warns that unless the UK establishes a cadre of top scientists, doctors, and engineers (STEM careers) dedicated to tackling to the problem of old age, the country could lose that momentum. Why not  check out the report Rejuvenating Ageing Research.


More promising young scientists, centres of excellence and grant giving organisations - all dedicated to ageing research - are now urgently needed in order to head off the looming crisis.
Medical interventions and lifestyle changes have both played crucial roles in bringing healthy old age to so many. Drugs that counter high blood pressure and cardiac complaints have produced startling reductions in death from heart diseases.

More importantly we are shaping up to a future in which 80 year olds will live as 60 year olds live today.
What implications here for future work?


The report on 'Rejuvenating Ageing Research coincided with the stepping down of Stephen Hawking, the most celebrated scientist in the country, from the most prestigious post in British physics - Lucasian Professor of Maths.  There is a genuine concern that Britain risks losing the next generation of great minds.  Government pressure on universities is diverting resaerchers away from purely intellectual problems and onto sure-fire money making projects. There is concern from physicists that this shift from 'blue skies research' to more practical problems will turn gifted students with the potential to be the next Hawking off science for good. If the government is putting a lot of emphasis on applied research, that sends a message to young people that they don't value the big questions in science and it's the 'big questions' that more often than not gets people fired up for science!

In a recent survey (May 2009) of some 800 students conducted by the Institute of Physics click here it found that 90% had been inspired into science because they wanted to do pure knowledge and curiosity-driven work in quantum theory, nuclear physics and astrophysics.

Recent cuts from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the main funding body for physics, will hit basic research hardest, affecting research universities in particular.  Hopefully, we will not see physics departments close with good students going elsewhere.

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